Electric Car

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT ELECTRIC CAR - PAGE 3

PUNE: Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles Pvt . Limited has announced that REVAi vehicle would be available at four Mahindra dealers in Pune. This is one of the major initiatives announced by the company after its acquisition of the Reva car by the Mahindra Group in May 2010. Mahindra Reva intends to extend the market throughout the country by making the electric car available at several Mahindra outlets across the country. "We were till now present only in Bangalore and Delhi.

CHENNAI: India's first-ever four-door electric car is all set to be launched by city-based Bavina Industries. The four-seater steel-bodied hatch-back resembling Hyundai Santro and Daewoo Matiz would zip through Indian roads from April 14, Managing Director of Bavina Industries S.Rajasekhar told PTI here today. The fully-loaded version of the car costs around Rs.2.5 lakh and boasts of facilities, including AC, power window and centralized locking, like any other small, premium hatch-back.

FRANKFURT: The world's leading luxury car maker, BMW, said on Friday it will invest 400 million euros (560 million dollars) by 2013 to produce an electric car as German manufacturers try to catch up with global rivals. BMW has begun to extend its plant in the eastern city of Leipzig in a project launched by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to produce a series model auto it has dubbed Megacity. Norbert Reithofer, head of BMW, said in a statement that the car would be "the first production model with a carbon fibre passenger compartment.

BANGALORE: At first sight, it looks like a toy car that has grown big on steroids, but a closer look at the two-door hatchback reveals a cable connecting it to a power outlet in a Bangalore shopping mall car park. Some 2,000 of these zero-polluting city commuters have been put on the roads in India and Europe, including 600 in London, in the six years since Reva Electric Car Co turned commercial. "The test-marketing phase is now over and the Reva, as the electric car is known, is ready to leap into the mass market for environment-friendly vehicles," said Chetan Maini, deputy chairman and chief technical officer.

TOKYO: Orders in Japan for Nissan's electric car have reached 3,754 in three weeks, more than half its target for the entire year, underlining growing consumer interest in the green vehicles. Nissan Motor Co. is planning to sell 6,000 of the zero-emission Leaf electric vehicles in Japan during this fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2011. The Leaf has been outselling the i-MiEV, the electric vehicle from Japanese rival Mitsubishi Motors Corp., which has drawn 2,000 orders so far. In a departure from the usual makeup of electric vehicle buyers, some 64 percent of the orders for the Leaf are from individual consumers _ about a third of them 60 or older _ while 36 percent are fleet customers.

DETROIT: Toyota Motor said Saturday it plans to launch an electric car in the United States by 2012 and boost its gas-electric hybrid offerings to as many as ten models in the early years of the next decade. Toyota said the announcement signals its intention to "broaden the scope of its advanced alternative-fuel vehicle development. " The Japanese automaker will show the prototype of its electric car, the FT-EV, at the Detroit auto show which opens Sunday with press previews.

FRANKFURT: Chinese auto group BYD (Build Your Dreams) and German luxury car maker Daimler announced on Thursday a joint venture to mass produce an electric car in China. A new research and development group to be called Shenzhen BYD Daimler New Technology Company will get an initial investment of around 600 million yuan (71 million euros, 87 million dollars), a Daimler statement said. "We are well-placed with our new joint venture to make the most of China's enormous potential in electro-mobility," Daimler Chairman Dieter Zetsche said.

MUMBAI: Even as auto-majors gear up to launch electric vehicles, they are questioning if India's infrastructure is ready for the new, hi-tech, zero emission cars. Lack of good roads, electricity, parking lots and availability of charger stations are the concerns facing electric car manufacturers. "Unless, we have good roads, electricity and parking slots, the demand for zero emission vehicles will never increase in the country," says Japanese car maker Toyota Kirloskar Motor's Deputy Managing Director (Marketing)

WASHINGTON: An ultralight electric car built by students at a US university has set a new land speed record in its class, besting the previous mark by nearly 80kph. Electric Blue, an E1 streamliner designed and modified by more than 130 Brigham Young University (BYU) students over the past 10 years, averaged 330kph on two qualifying runs this month. The new mark obliterates the previous record, 250kph, which was set by the same BYU car in 2011. "When we set the record three years ago we felt like we left a lot on the table," said BYU student and team captain, Kelly Hales.

TOKYO: Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor Co Ltd plans to start producing electric vehicles in the United States, a newspaper reported on Saturday. It would be the first time that a Japanese automaker mass-produced electric vehicles overseas, the Nikkei business daily said. The company is seeking low-interest loans from the US government to develop green vehicles and plans to invest 50 billion yen (518 million dollars), which could rise to more than 100 billion yen depending on demand, the daily said.